On the Canal : the Marines of L-3-5 on Guadalcanal, 1942-43

• A straightforward, gripping tale from the Marines that stormed ashore on Guadalcanal in World War II • Told with humor and honesty in a no-holds-barred approach that only a Marine who was there could tell Excerpt on firing a rifle grenade: "I jammed the rifle stock tight against my shoulder, raised myself up off the ground to a kneeling position, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle went bang! and the recoil jarred it loose from my grip. The rifle smacked me hard in the jaw. With that, I went down on my face while the little bluebirds started going tweet, tweet, tweet around my head.—'Did I hit it?' I asked.—'Yeah, you hit it,' Flash said. 'The damn thing just didn't work.'—We finally ran into somebody from another unit, a guy who really understood how the new style grenade was supposed to work. We explained our misfortune to him, and he asked us did you pull the firing pin out . . . The god damn pin!" A straightforward, gripping tale from the Marines that stormed ashore on Guadalcanal in World War II. Told with humor and honesty in a no-holds-barred approach that only a Marine who was there could tell. Excerpt on firing a rifle grenade: "I jammed the rifle stock tight against my shoulder, raised myself up off the ground to a kneeling position, and squeezed the trigger. The rifle went bang! And the recoil jarred it loose from my grip. The rifle smacked me hard in the jaw. With that, I went down on my face while the little bluebirds started going tweet, tweet, tweet around my head. 'Did I hit it?' I asked. 'Yeah, you hit it, ' Flash said. 'The thing just didn't work. 'We finally ran into somebody from another unit, a guy who really understood how the new style grenade was supposed to work. We explained our misfortune to him, and he asked us did you pull the firing pin out!" A gripping true story of the WWII Guadalcanal Campaign—told with no-holds-barred honesty and humor by a Marine who was there. In August of 1942, Allied forces led by U.S. Marines came ashore on Guadalcanal, launching the first major land offensive against Imperial Japan. M. Sgt. Ore J. Marion of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment was among them. Here, Marion and other men of L-3-5 share a personal account of their experiences over the course of this grueling and protracted campaign. The stories contained in these pages are harrowing, profane, heartbreaking, irreverent, and deeply human. As with many personal accounts, some memories recorded here are at odds with the official accounts in Washington’s archives. Rather than presenting a clean and consistent narrative, On the Canal reflects the messy business of warfare and human memory.